


Ghostly Protection

by buckyismymainman



Series: Avengers Oneshots [56]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, F/M, Necromancer!Bucky Barnes, ghost!Reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28715901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyismymainman/pseuds/buckyismymainman
Summary: Bucky is a necromancer who doesn’t remember who he is.  He doesn’t remember being James Buchanan Barnes and he certainly doesn’t remember Steve Rogers.  HYDRA has been using him to summon souls that they can use for evil purposes.  That is until you come along.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Series: Avengers Oneshots [56]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314041
Kudos: 14





	Ghostly Protection

“Summon someone,” his handler barked at him. He tossed a bag of supplies at Bucky and slammed the heavy metal door shut behind him.

Bucky stood in the center of the cell his mind fuzzy as he tried to remember things, people, places. Who was he? He knew one thing though: he could summon spirits. That was what the people who had him in the cell he currently lived in had told him.

Bucky was slow to start, he hated summoning spirits and using them for HYDRA’s gain. But if he didn’t summon someone then they would torture him and he’d rather not go through that again. So he did as instructed and began summoning a spirit that HYDRA could use for whatever purpose they had in mind.

His body seemed to work without much prompting from him. He cast a circle and began chanting the words that would bring forth a spirit. His handlers watched the bars of Bucky’s cell, their hands clenched around the bars as the circle began to glow with an eerie blue light. This was it, it was working and soon they would have another ghost under their control.

From the other side of the void, you were just drifting through the endless void of nothing. There was nothing there waiting for you. Sometimes you would catch glimpses of the world of the living that you had once belonged to. You weren’t sure why you were stuck in this void, but you assumed that you had some unfinished business that you needed to do before you could fully move on. Maybe there was someone that needed your help.

The was when there was a bright light pulling you from the darkness and into a cell. There was a man standing before you with a metal arm and a scowl on his face. You looked around wondering where the hell you were and that was when you saw you were being watched by two other men. They were staring hungrily at you and you shrunk behind the man who had obviously summoned you.

“Good job soldier,” one man had said in a thickly accented voice. He sounded Russian to you, but you couldn’t be sure. “She will be of great use to us.”

You didn’t like how that sounded at all. You didn’t know who these men were, but you knew that whatever they wanted from you wasn’t good.

Weeks passed and you learned that you were with the terror organization known as HYDRA. You remembered them from your time when you were alive. You hated the thought that someone had summoned you to be used for evil purposes. This is not what was going to get you into your afterlife.

As time continued to pass you refused to work for HYDRA and you learned more about Bucky. He was being brainwashed and controlled by HYDRA. There were times when in your mind you caught glimpses of the man he once was. Maybe some divine intervention was helping you figure out what was going on, or maybe it was a link between you and him since he had been the one to summon you.

His real name was James Buchanan Barnes and he had fought in World War II alongside Captain America. The world believed that he had died back then, but in reality, HYDRA had captured him. That was when you realized that this was your mission. You had to help Bucky escape capture and get back to Steve Rogers who was also still alive.

You were in the cell with Bucky, he was staring straight ahead at the wall while you studied his face. “Bucky?” You whispered softly. HYDRA could only pick up what you said through audio frequencies so you had to be careful. “Bucky can you hear me?” He didn’t act as if he could hear you, his eyes stayed focused ahead. You reached out and gently touched his arm, “Please hold on a little while longer, I’m going to set you free.”

He didn’t react at all to your touch and it made your heart ache for the poor man before you. In that moment you became even more determined to find a way to set him free.

HYDRA tried binding you to another one of their agents, but your stubbornness made it hard for them to do that. You had formed a bond with Bucky and you weren’t about to go to another agent. No one could split the two of you apart now.

One day you were sitting in Bucky’s cell as he stared at the wall in front of him, his eyes never blinking or straying from the bricks in front of him. You were sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Hey Bucky?” You weren’t expecting a response from him. “I think you need to find Steve Rogers. He can help you.” Still no response from him. You sighed, “I wish you would show me some emotion!” 

Finally, Bucky looked at you, “Who is Steve?”

You blinked, not expecting his response. Months of trying to get him to say something to you and this was it. This was your moment. “He’s your best friend,” you move over to him and set your hands on top of his. “You fought together in World War II. You need to break out of here Bucky.”

“Break free,” he whispered.

“Yes!” You said excitedly, a smile breaking out on your face. “Yes, break free. Find Steven Rogers. He’s an Avenger.”

“Avenger,” Bucky whispered.

Someone banged on the cell doors causing you to jump, you glared at the man outside. “Quiet!” He barked before moving on.

“If I were alive,” you began as you clenched your fists together. Bucky found it endearing how angry you looked at that moment. To be honest, he had started to grow attached to you, but he didn’t want to let himself get that way. He was afraid you would be taken from him, but you were stubborn and refused to leave his side no matter what.

“Y/N,” he said your name softly, so softly that it caused your anger to ebb and you met his blue eyes. They were softer, less haunted than they had been in a long time. “Take me home,” he whispered.

You nodded your head slowly, “I’ll get you home, Bucky. I promise.”

For a month you watched the guard rotations and plotted the best course for escape. You made sure that you hadn’t overlooked any details as you planned to get Bucky out. You and Bucky would only have one shot at this, and you knew HYDRA would be after you.

A month after you promised Bucky that you would get him out you unlocked his cell door. “We gotta go,” you told him. Bucky was on his feet and following you out the cell. He let you lead him down the hall. “This way,” you urged.

Bucky followed your lead without instruction and trusted you not to be leading him into a trap. They were almost to the door where the two of you could escape when alarms started blaring around you. “That’s not good,” Bucky commented dryly.

You didn’t say anything as you and he picked up speed and made it to the door. Bucky kicked it open and shot at two of the guards that were coming toward him. If you had been alive you would have been shaking with the amount of adrenaline that would be coursing through your body. All the action around you was making you jittery.

Bucky made it to a Jeep and wired it so that it would start. He tore away from the HYDRA base as fast as the car would allow him. You were in the seat beside him watching as more HYDRA agents came chasing after the two of you in Jeeps similar to the one Bucky had stolen and then four-wheelers. You tried to pick up Bucky’s gun but cursed when your hand passed right through it.

“It’s okay,” Bucky told you. “I can handle this.”

Settling back into your seat you prayed that you would make it out of here with Bucky still alive and not back in the hands of HYDRA.

Two hours after Bucky’s escape you ditched the Jeep and continued on foot to a small town where Bucky snuck onto a train. He was hiding in the cargo hold behind several large crates. He pulled his knife out of its holster and began widdling on a piece of wood. You sat there quietly watching him, not sure what you wanted to say now.

“Bucky… are you okay?”

Bucky looked up at you, was he okay? It had been a long time since someone had asked him if he was all right. None of his handlers ever cared if he was okay as long as he got the job done. “I will be,” he told you, there was a ghost of a smile on his face. “Thank you.”

You hopped off the box and took a seat beside him, resting your head on his shoulder and watching him continue to whittle away. Bucky found your presence next to him comforting and soon he was falling asleep while you kept watch.

It took two months to reach the Avengers’ Tower in New York City. There had been several close calls along the way. HYDRA was persistent on not letting Bucky go so easily. You had worried that Bucky was going to collapse from exhaustion sometimes, he had to stay awake for days at a time in order to put distance between him and HYDRA. Then there was the gunshot wound that he had suffered when an agent managed to sneak up on them.

He had found a doctor that was willing to help him once you explained the situation, thankfully the doctor had been a medium and could hear you without any problems. He even let you and Bucky stay for a few days while Bucky healed up and gave you some cash to help get food or transportation.

The moment Bucky set foot in Avengers’ Tower though he had collapsed. People came rushing forward and you had to manipulate some of their devices to tell them to find Steve Rogers. You were kneeling next to Bucky protectively when Steve arrived. His eyes widened in shock when he saw his best friend lying on the floor.

He looked to you, “What happened?” You hesitated not sure how to convey what you wanted to him. “I can understand you, I’m a necromancer like Bucky.”

You wasted no time launching into what had happened and how you had figured out who Bucky truly was. Medics came and took Bucky to one of the upper levels so that they could treat him. You watched them as they took him away, wringing your hands together as he disappeared in an elevator.

Steve noticed your worry and said, “You’re close to him.”

You looked up at Steve, “I don’t know how bonds between necromancers and the spirits they summon work, but yeah… I am close to Bucky. I just want him to be safe.”

“And he will be, here with us where the others and I can protect him,” Steve promised.

Another month passed before Bucky regained more of his memory. You stayed with him the entire time making sure that he was okay. You never wanted to leave his side and Tony had resorted to calling you Bucky’s shadow. Honestly, you didn’t care what the others thought of you.

One day Bucky came to you and told you something that completely shocked you, “Y/N, I need to tell you something.” You had sat on the end of his bed waiting for him to continue, he looked worried and like he might be sick. “I can help you move on…. Your purpose was to help me, to free me from HYDRA, it’s why the powers that be sent you to me. Now that I’m back with Steve and getting help to remember my past you’ve completed your mission. You can move on.”

You blinked, the world around you began to spin slightly. “Do you want me to go?” The question came out softly and you felt as if you could cry. Could ghosts cry? You had never done it before. You had felt so many other emotions but nothing like this.

Bucky saw the heartbroken look on your face and took your hands in his, “I don’t want you to go anywhere. I like having you here with me, but I feel guilty for holding you here when you could finally move on and enjoy your afterlife. It’s selfish of me to keep you here.”

“But what if I don’t want to go? What if I want to stay here with you?” You urged and squeezed his hands. “I don’t want to leave you Bucky. Please don’t make me.”

Bucky’s eyes searched your face for anything that might say you were joking with him, but he knew you were serious. “Then I want you to stay too, but only because you want to.”

“I do,” you urged. “I want to stay.”

He smiled, “That would make me really happy. For the first time in seventy-some years, I have someone that takes care of me and that I gladly call a friend. Sure I have Steve too, but if I lost you then I’d be devastated.”

You hugged Bucky, you never wanted to leave his side, and you didn’t. Bucky lived his life, took down HYDRA with the help of the others, and protected so many people. You were there beside him when he took his final breaths as an old man surrounded by loved ones. Bucky had never married, but he had made so many friends throughout his life that he was never alone.

When Bucky’s soul left his body he appeared before you, the same age he had been when he had summoned you. “Hey doll,” he had said before you had rushed into his arms. He hugged you tightly, it was different this time. Before whenever the two of you had touched or hugged it never lasted long, the effort for Bucky to be able to feel you took too much of your energy. Now you were the same.

“So are you ready for your next great adventure, Sergeant Barnes?” You asked as you slipped your hand in his. 

“Yeah, I think I am,” he responded before he leaned down and kissed you, the two of you fading from the mortal realm and into the afterlife the two of you deserved together.


End file.
